Rash Behari Bose
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| Rash Behari Bose | |
|---|---|
| May 25, 1886–January 21, 1945 | |
 File photo of Rash Behari Bose |
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| Place of birth: | Subaldaha village, Burdwan Dist., West Bengal, India |
| Movement: | Indian Independence movement |
| Major organizations: | Jugantar Indian Independence League, Indian National Army |
Rashbehari Bose May 25, 1886–January 21, 1945 was a revolutionary leader against the British Raj in India and was one of the organisers of the Indian National Army.
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[edit] Early life
Bose was born in the Subaldaha village of Burdwan, in the province of Bengal. He had his education in Chandannagar, where his father, Vinodebehari Bose, was stationed.
[edit] Revolutionary activities
He was involved in revolutionary activities early in his life and was implicated in the Alipore bomb case (1908). After being released from jail, he went to Dehradun and worked there as a head clerk at the Forest Research Institute. At Dehradun, he secretly got involved with the revolutionaries of Bengal, the United Provinces(currently U.P.) and the Punjab. His involvement in many revolutionary activities aroused the suspicion of the government and ultimately he was obliged to leave the country. He was hunted by the colonial police due to his active participation in the failed bomb throwing attempt directed at the Governor General and Viceroy Lord Charles Hardinge in Delhi (the bomb was actually thrown by Basanta Kumar Biswas, his disciple). He returned to Dehradun by the night train and joined the office the next day as though nothing had happened. Further, he organised a meeting of loyal citizens of Dehradun to condemn the dastardly attack on the Viceroy. Who on earth could imagine that he was the same person who had masterminded and executed the most outstanding revolutionary action. Lord Hardinge in his My Indian Years had described the whole incident in an interesting way. He had also planned a unsuccessful pan India revolution in February 1915. Trusted and tried Ghadrites were sent to some cantonments to infiltrate into the army. The idea was since the war had already started in Europe most of the soldiers had gone out of the country and rest could be easily won over. The revolution failed and most of the revolutionaries were arrested. But he managed to escape British intelligence and reached Japan in 1915.
[edit] Indian National Army
Bose was instrumental in persuading the Japanese authorities to stand by the Indian nationalists and ultimately to support actively the Indian freedom struggle abroad. Bose convened a conference in Tokyo on March 28-30, 1942, which decided to establish the Indian Independence League. At the conference he moved a motion to raise an army for Indian liberation. He convened the second conference of the League at Bangkok on June 22, 1942. It was at this conference that a resolution was adopted to invite Subhas Chandra Bose to join the League and take its command as its president.
The Indian prisoners of war captured by the Japanese in the Malaya and Burma fronts were encouraged to join the Indian Independence League and become the soldiers of the Indian National Army (INA), the military wing of Bose's Indian National League. But his rise to actual power and glory was unfortunately terminated by an action of the Japanese military command, which expelled him and his general Mohan Singh from the INA leadership. But though he fell from grace, his organisational structure remained, and it was on the organisational spadework of Rashbehari Bose that Subhash Chandra Bose later built the Indian National Army (also called 'Azad Hind Fauj'). Before his death, the Japanese Government honoured him with the 'Second Order of the Merit of the Rising Sun'.
[edit] See also
- Indian independence movement
- Indian National Army
- Arzi Hukumate Azad Hind
- Revolutionary movement for Indian independence
